Salomu

Salomu is a 22-year-old businesswoman living in Mbire, a district in rural Zimbabwe. She is married and a mother of one. She provides counseling services to young people facing challenges at a local community center. Salomu also inspires young women in her community as an entrepreneur where she operates a grocery shop selling food items such as cooking oil, sugar, salt, maize-meal, sugar beans, matemba (sardines), biscuits, sweets, and stationary. Salomu has been running her business for a year now and has managed to employ two people during that time. She is very proud that the business has enabled her to provide for her family’s basic needs.

Salomu will use the Kiva loan to expand her business by increasing her supplies. She hopes to grow the business and increase its profitability to better provide for her family’s needs and the needs of vulnerable children in the community.

Additional Information

More information about this loan

Young women who live and work in the most impoverished, rural districts of Zimbabwe have very limited income, lack collateral and cannot access loans at affordable rates

Camfed's borrowers are young women who live and work in these remote rural areas and belong to the Cama network (the association of Camfed alumni). Most Cama borrowers will have received money management and business training through Camfed’s programs for young women who have completed high school. Borrowers will repay interest upon their loans as a "social interest" - through their volunteer efforts to enhance the quality of the education provided by their local schools.

Borrowers commit to contribute a minimum of 2.5 hours per week as volunteers. As Learner Guides, they will lead students through a new wellbeing curriculum that helps develop students’ skills and capacities for decision-making, problem solving, leadership, entrepreneurship, resilience, communication, and empathy.

About Camfed

The Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) is an international nonprofit organization operating in five countries in Africa that focuses on eradicating poverty in rural Africa by investing in education for girls and supporting the economic self-reliance and leadership of young women. Camfed provides support for the long-term, working with individuals from primary to high school, and through the Cama empowerment and community outreach group.

Kiva lenders’ funds are used to link women living in rural Zimbabwe to the capital they need to expand their businesses, support their families and contribute to their communities.